What We’re Reading

New York Times reporters and editors are highlighting great stories from around the web. You can receive What We’re reading by email, and let us know how you like it at wwr@nytimes.com.

Image

CreditLIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

New Vonnegut

From The Atlantic: While reading through Kurt Vonnegut’s papers at Indiana University, one of his friends and a scholar came across five previously unpublished short stories. Here is one, dating to the early 1950s, called “The Drone King.” (Not the flying robot kind — the bee kind.) And there’s an audio version, if you’d prefer to just listen. — Patrick LaForge, senior editor, Express

_____

Image

CreditKevin Lamarque/Reuters

Fast Friends

From The New York Times: Has President Trump pivoted, or is his recent budget deal with Democratic leaders a sign of pragmatic triangulation? Partisan writers from the left, right and center interpret the president’s rift with Republican leaders and newfound warmth for “Chuck and Nancy.” — Anna Dubenko, senior digital strategist

_____

Image

CreditAl Drago for The New York Times

‘Liberty and the News’

From Google Play: Walter Lippmann delivered a potent message nearly a century ago that resonates today: “True opinions can prevail only if the facts to which they refer are known; if they are not known, false ideas are just as effective as true ones, if not a little more effective.” These three of his essays are worth reviving. — Sam Roberts, urban affairs correspondent

_____

Image

CreditGordon Welters for The New York Times

Northern Repression

From The Root: How Rosa Park’s Detroit house ended up in Berlin is one story. The effort to return it to Detroit is another. Either way, the history of the house, the author writes, gets overlooked and should offer an opportunity to discuss Northern segregation and racial injustice at a time of so much focus on the South and Confederate monuments. — Randy Archibold, deputy sports editor

_____

Image

CreditBerliner Verlag/DPA, via Associated Press

Still Hunting

From The Guardian: In 1958, the West German government created an office tasked with finding and bringing to justice associates of the Third Reich. To this day, its staff is scouring the globe looking for Nazis. This report looks at the debate in Germany over whether it’s time to end the effort. Its director says there is much still to be done. — Patrick Boehler, briefings team

_____

Image

CreditEmon Hassan for The New York Times

Tapping a Vein

From VQR: On some level, I knew people made ends meet by selling plasma. But until I read this, I didn’t think too hard about what that meant. — KJ Dell’Antonia, regular contributor

_____

Image

CreditSasha Maslov for The New York Times

The Path to Vanity Fair

From New York Magazine: Graydon Carter’s decision to leave Vanity Fair brought to mind this profile from 2000. It’s indispensable reading about one of the country’s best-known editors. It tracks his Gatsbyesque life from the Canadian suburbs to Manhattan’s A-list. And the author is Jennifer Senior, now a book critic for The New York Times. — Michael M. Grynbaum, media correspondent

_____

Image

CreditNOAA

Consider the Octopus

From London Review of Books: I’m not likely to read two books about the octopus, which is the great thing about a review that does. This looks at the creature’s remarkable intelligence and makes a case for its consciousness and self-awareness. But it also takes us through its contradictions: a big brain, much of it in limbs that “think” independently; able to change color at will, but colorblind. Friendly and gentle to humans, while solitary among its own kind. And despite its complexity, a short life span — at best four years. It all makes one think what an encounter with an alien life form might be like. Octopuses have been known to playfully steal cameras from divers; humans have been known to eat the creatures alive. — Rod Nordland, international correspondent at large

_____

Correction:

An earlier version of this compilation misspelled Walter Lippmann’s name as Lippman.